MTV is gearing up for its biggest night of the year, Sunday’s Video Music Awards.
But, come Monday morning, the network will be back trying to remake itself for the third — or fourth — time in its 28-year existence.
The music network has recently announced it has commissioned a series of new shows:
* A half-hour comedy, “Hard Times,” co-written by the best-selling author of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”
* A remake of the hit teen British series “Skins.”
* A pilot for a series based on the ’80s “Teen Wolf” movie.
* And two movies based on hit MTV reality shows, “My Super Sweet 16” and “Made.”
What do they all have in common? They are all scripted shows — something MTV has only rarely done in the past. And never with much success.
The network that gave the world “Real World” and “The Osbournes” is looking for the next big thing.
“We were a pioneer in reality and now a lot of people are doing shows like the ones we’ve done in the past,” says the network’s head of programming, Tony DiSanto.
Now, “it’s about . . . trying to do something different,” he says.
“Conventional TV has done a good job of usurping” MTV’s success with reality TV, says a former MTV exec, who asked not to be named.
With the success of shows like “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” (on ABC Family) and ‘tween hits like “iCarly” (Nickelodeon), “you can imagine MTV suits freaking out that [those shows] could be stealing some of their audience,” he says.
“They’re saying, ‘Look what’s happening with ‘Hannah Montana‘ and ‘iCarly,’ we better get into that game, too.’ ”
“The network’s ratings have been declining for the past two years, so they are in need of some changes to stem their losses,” says Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, president of the media-buying agency Magna.
In other words, she says, they need a hit.
While MTV isn’t giving up on reality series, DiSanto says that, instead of the high-gloss of “The Hills,” the newer series will have “a little more verite. . .rawness, almost a homemade feel.
“MTV has to have a very specific identity,” he says. “In terms of attitude, storytelling, execution and visual style, it should all feel rebellious and it should have an edge to it in terms of the tone. It has to feel like something you wouldn’t just see somewhere else.”